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10 minor #mozfest musings

I missed the second full day of #mozfest so don’t feel I can really do it justice with a full review but thought I’d just jot down a few general thoughts.

1. The Science Fair was amazing this year. Sooooo many great projects being demo’d and the crowd was seriously engaged. It was a little tough to fight your way to actually speak to the folk doing the demos sometimes but I figure that is a good problem as it shows how popular everything was! Check out this post with a load of links to what was there.

2. Despite my fears about the numbers it never felt too crowded – the drop in nature of the event seems to have ensured there was never a totally full house. The place always felt buzzing and busy without it getting to be too much.

3. The wifi seemed to hold up pretty well Friday and Saturday – pretty amazing considering the number of connected devices.

4. ‘Awesome’ is still overused but this year ‘hack’ overtook it. Apparently *everything* is a hack 🙂 Though I did love the DIY, Blue Peter style nature of so many of the spaces this year.

5. The volunteers were amazing (as ever) so well done Spike and the gang (sounds like a band). I will say though that while the red shirted volunteers were very prevalent it was harder to tell who the 300+ facilitators were at times. It seemed to be the same handful of people doing everything certainly on the floors I inhabited.

6. The Schedule app was very clever but really not very helpful. The inability to view across streams and properly plan a day was a real pain. Everyone I spoke to had missed sessions. I know the old wiki was a bit of a pain to maintain but it was much more user friendly in my opinion. Also it kind of made the assumption people would just follow one stream.

7. The diversity at these events always amazes me. I’m constantly reading about sexism and ‘brogrammers’ in technology circles but #mozfest just seems to buck that trend. So many women (maybe because so many of the leadership of the organisation and event are women), people from all over Europe, North (and South) America, Africa and Asia – and thats just people I met. Amazing.

8. I’m still not comfortable with the whooping, love bombing, awesome, constant clapping type ‘testifying’. I got the impression I wasn’t alone either. I do however have much more respect for it than ever and was once again impressed by how Gunner combines that kind of California hippy vibe with quite a Sergeant-Major streak as well to make sure things get done.

9. Really would have liked the team to announce when Anil Dash was speaking. I know it was my own fault I was late but I would have jumped in a cab rather than get a train then bus if I had known.

10. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The people are what make #mozfest great. I really have never encountered a more friendly, accepting group of people. The fact that they put up with a grumpy old git like myself with no useful skills is a testament to their collective patience 🙂

Anyway thanks again to all involved in making it happen. See you next time.